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I've just started trying to teach myself C++ (I've been a C# programmer for about a year now) and I can't understand for the life of me what the difference is between Console::WriteLine("Hello World") and cout<<"Hello World", on a side note I'm not even really sure what cout and cin even are so any help with that would also be appreciated

user93353
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Ehren Patel
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    `Console::WriteLine` isn't C++. It's C++/CLI, which is more or less C++ running on .NET. – chris May 15 '13 at 05:37
  • By the way, `cout` is an `ostream` object for `stdout`. `cin` is an `istream` object for `stdin`. – chris May 15 '13 at 05:40

2 Answers2

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You are using C++/CLI and not just C++. C++/CLI is a Microsoft extension which allows you to write .NET code on Windows and allows you to use the .NET Library(CLR - Common Language Runtime).

Console::WriteLine is a method from the .NET Library - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kxcchfk6.aspx

When you are create a Project in Visual C++, it allows you to either create a C++ Project or a C++/CLI (CLR) project. The CLR Projects types are the ones where you can use .NET stuff. If you create a Win32 project or one of the other types, it's just C++.

If you are not creating projects & just compiling from the command line, then the /clr option is the one to use for C++/CLI.

cout & cin are iostream objects. The corresponding classes have operators << & >> overloaded - hence you are able to do output with cout<< & input with cin>>.

This Q & A gives a better understanding of why the design used << & >>.

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user93353
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  • Thanks everyone for your answers but what really confuses me is that Console::WriteLine and cout<< seem to DO the same thing and I found it very unlikely that all Console::WriteLine does is call cout<< otherwise they wouldn't have even bothered making it so can someone also help me with that? Thanks – Ehren Patel Jun 04 '13 at 02:01
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    @EhrenPatel `Console::WriteLine` is part of the .NET library. The .NET Library is available for use from C#, VB# etc. Those languages do not have `cout`. – user93353 Jun 04 '13 at 03:04
  • Does C++ have any standard function that writes a line to the console, i.e. automatically puts an `endl` at the end of your input? – Kyle Delaney Apr 28 '18 at 22:32
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    @KyleDelaney - `puts` – user93353 Apr 29 '18 at 05:09
  • @user93353 Thank you, I didn't know about that. But is there one that works for more than just strings? – Kyle Delaney Apr 30 '18 at 03:30
  • @KyleDelaney - no – user93353 Apr 30 '18 at 06:04
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The difference is that std::cout is standard and is therefore available in any C++ compiler on any platform, whereas Console is a Microsoft-specific extension.

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